sitive state_," as they define it:
because, either the "quality" or the "object," (I know not which,) is
represented by them as "without any increase or diminution;" and this would
not, in the present case, be true of either; for iron changes in bulk, by a
change of temperature. (2.) What, in the first sentence, is erroneously
called "the positive _state_," in the second and the third, is called, "the
positive _degree_;" and this again, in the fourth, is falsely identified
with "the simple _word_." Now, if we suppose the meaning to be, that "the
positive state," "the positive degree," or "the simple word," is "without
any increase or diminution;" this is expressly contradicted by three
sentences out of the five, and implicitly, by one of the others. (3.) Not
one of these sentences is _true_, in the most obvious sense of the words,
if in any other; and yet the doctrines they were designed to teach, may
have been, in general, correctly gathered from the examples. (4.) The
phrase, "_positive in signification_," is not intelligible in the sense
intended, without a comma after _positive_; and yet, in an armful of
different English grammars which contain the passage, I find not one that
has a point in that place. (5.) It is not more correct to say, that the
comparative or the superlative degree, "increases or lessens the positive,"
than it would be to aver, that the plural number increases or lessens the
singular, or the feminine gender, the masculine. Nor does the superlative
mean, what a certain learned Doctor understands by it--namely, "_the
greatest or least possible degree_." If it did, "the _thickest_ parts of
his skull," for example, would imply small room for brains; "the
_thinnest_," protect them ill, if there were any. (6.) It is improper to
say, "_The simple word becomes_ [the] _comparative by adding r or er_; and
_the superlative by adding st or est_." The thought is wrong; and nearly
all the words are misapplied; as, _simple_ for _primitive, adding_ for
_assuming_, &c. (7.) Nor is it very wise to say, "the adverbs _more_ and
_most_, placed before the adjective, _have the same effect_:" because it
ought to be known, that the effect of the one is very different from that
of the other! "_The same effect_," cannot here be taken for any effect
previously described; unless we will have it to be, that these words,
_more_ and _most_, "become comparative by adding _r_ or _er_; and the
superlative by adding _st_ or _est_, to